Another installment with a pinch more fluff, or angst, rather. I don't know, you be the judge.
She ended up talking Dean and a very reluctant Sam into taking her with them, on the condition, of course, that she would stay in the car no matter what happened. The Impala was starting to feel like a second home to her now. She watched anxiously from the back seat of the car as Dean ransacked the reverend's home and Sam desecrated the church. She figured if her cousins were in fact banishing an evil spirit that was killing people then God would surely understand, right?
The whole thing was over and done with in less than two hours, but sitting in that car, waiting for her cousins to come out of that church in one piece, had made her feel like the night would never end. It took everything she had to not run out of the car and rush into that church herself. The relief she felt as she saw her cousins come out with Lori between them, was so immense that she could not hold it in and only then did she jump out of the car and run to them.
"Are you OK?" She said loudly to all three "Is everyone OK?"
"It's over" Dean said, wrapping an arm around her "It's over. We're all OK He's gone"
Isabel yawned loudly for what she guessed was about the twenty-seventh time since the excitement and buzz of the night's events had worn off. Hours later and they were still talking to the police. She looked up at the sky, the sun was starting to rise and she felt so incredibly tired. She didn't want to think just how tired Sam and Dean would be after having barely slept in three days. An ambulance had arrived and Lori was being taken care of by paramedics while Sam was hanging near her as he talked to another police officer.
She felt a sudden sense of déjà vu. She wondered if the whole scene, with the police and paramedics, had been similar on the night that her cousins had rescued her from the demon that had abducted her not so long ago. Again, she felt a small measure of gratitude that she'd been unconscious and could therefore not recall such a scene, especially when she knew that it would have also included the coroner's van, ready to take not only the body of the demon himself, but that of her friend, to join her boyfriend's at the county morgue.
The sheriff approached Dean and Isabel, and having been temporarily immersed in an unwelcome memory of her attack, she immediately bristled, grabbing at the sleeve of his jacket with a tense fist and instinctively moving closer to him. She remembered that the demon that had attacked her, the thing had wreaked havoc in her mind and on her body, had worn the kind and friendly face of the town's deputy sheriff and for a moment, it became a challenge to differentiate between that memory and the reality of what was now happening in front of her. Dean noticed her rigid stance and grabbed her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze to let her know it would be OK.
"And you saw him too?" The sheriff asked them "The man with the hook?"
Isabel shook her head as she looked away "We all saw him. Except Isabel" Dean said looking briefly at his cousin "We fought him and he ran"
"And that's all?" The sheriff looked suspicious.
"Yeah, that's all"
He took a step closer to them and Isabel's grip on Dean's hand tightened "Listen, you and your brother…"
"Oh, don't worry" Dean said "We're leaving town"
The sheriff nodded and Dean and Isabel walked to the car "Can I ride shotgun this time?" She asked.
"Sure" He opened the passenger door for her.
He tried disentangling his hand from hers but found her grip unrelenting. He watched her for a moment before he looked down at their hands and realized she hadn't even noticed she was still clutching his tightly. She looked down and relaxed her fingers.
"Sorry" She said blankly, as if she herself didn't understand why her hand seemed to have a mind of its own.
"You OK?"
"I'm fine" She said and stepped into the car.
Dean shut the door and walked around to the driver's seat, closing the door as he sat behind the wheel. He looked ahead for a few seconds in quiet contemplation.
"You keep saying that Bel, but…I don't believe you anymore"
The silence was doing nothing to calm his nerves. Nerves that for some reason had not been present the entire time he and Sam had been fighting with the hook man yet here, alone in the car with his troubled cousin, he suddenly felt out of his depth. He hesitated and wondered if he'd said the wrong thing. He didn't want to push her, especially with Sam not around whom he was sure, for some unexplained reason would know just the right thing to say or do in this delicate situation better than he ever would.
But he was tired. Tired of her stubborn avoidance of everything that had happened. How long would she act like it was just some bad childhood memory, like the time when she was four and Aunt Jane lost her in a department store, or the Christmas that Dean had 'accidentally' told her there was no Santa Claus? How long was she going to pretend that there was nothing wrong, that she was perfectly fine and unaffected? How long were he and Sam supposed to go along with it?
"What do you want me to say, Dean?" She said finally "You want me to say that being in the hospital freaked me out because it reminded of my time there? That just seeing the sheriff scared the crap out of me because it reminded me of what that bastard did to me? That it took me almost three hours yesterday to gather up the courage to walk into that police station to get you guys out? Well… there… I've said it"
He looked at her for a moment, wondering how he could possibly go about this. It was a sensitive topic and he had never been good at this kind of conversation. It required a lot of compassion, sensitivity and understanding, things he wasn't sure he would be able to provide for her, at least, not the way Sam likely could. But he could listen.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.
She snorted slightly and shook her head "Honestly? No" She said
"Isabel" He said gently placing a hand on her shoulder. She turned to him slowly "You can't bottle it up forever. You'll have to talk about it sometime. If not to me, then maybe you'd feel more comfortable with Sam"
"It's not that" She said "I know I could talk to you about anything, and I will. I just need a little more time to…sort it all out. I don't know if what I remember is what really happened, but with every nightmare I have and with certain things I see…I remember more" Her eyes were watery now and she fought hard to not cry "And I don't know if I want to Dean. What if it's too much? What if I can't handle it?"
"You will" He said reassuringly "And I'll be there when you're ready. We'll both be there for you"
"You promise?" He gave her his Dean smile a soft kiss on her temple, which in turn made her smile.
"I promise" He said pointing a finger at her "And you've got to promise to talk to me"
"OK, I promise" She said then smirked at him "I thought you didn't do chick flick moments and I don't' know if you realize, but that's exactly what this is"
"You tell Sam and I'll kick your ass" He jokingly warned, giving her a playful punch in the arm to emphasize his idle threat.
"Not today. I'm exhausted, and so are you"
He ran his palm over his face and sighed deeply "Yeah, I'm beat" He said shaking his head "I could sleep for a week straight"
"What the hell is taking him so long?" Isabel asked, turning in her seat to look out the window for Sam. She spotted him talking to Lori, near the ambulance "Oh"
Dean turned his head and watched the coupled through the side view mirror "Go Sammy!" He said softly.
"Maybe we could stay here a while" Isabel suggested, having already noticed there was a definite spark between those two, and given the right chance and little time, it could turn into something.
Both of them quickly turned back to face the front as Sam walked over to the car. He got in and sat in the back seat quietly.
"We could stay" Dean said, turning to face his brother.
Sam looked at him then glanced Isabel's way, she had rested her head against the window, and looked like she was about to fall asleep.
"What? And miss Graceland?" Sam asked watching Isabel for a reaction, but all she did was sigh wistfully. He looked back towards Dean and shook his head in the negative before leaning back on the seat and closing his eyes.
"Oh no" Dean said as he started driving off "One of you has got to start talking to keep me awake"
"Just go back to the motel. We need to sleep" Isabel said, not opening her eyes "I took the front seat Sam. You mind?"
"Course not, Bel" He said "Just don't get used it"
She smiled and Sam saw it on her reflection in the side view mirror.
AN: Thanks for reading. Now, you've come all this way, you might as well review! Trust me, it'll make my day. Well, the trio are about to leave Iowa. Hey, you know what's coming up soon? Sam's birthday! Oh yes. Toodles, AT